one of those women

I didn't want to be but it seems like I am. One of those women whose labour doesn't progress. I have been having contractions for a few weeks now off and on. Two nights ago I was up all night with contractions and they have continued every 10-20 minutes since then. They have not progressed to a point of active labour. It is getting very tiring and discouraging. Our midwife and doula have been really encouraging and say that all this work helps for later in the labour but it is just exhausting and hard with another child to care for. If I knew the end was two days away or one week away, I could handle it, but not knowing if these contractions are going to get worse today or not is hard to take for too long.
Maetia is concerned that Mummy has to bend over and squat alot but she is taking it well. She is a ball of energy and so much fun. We love her personality and spunk. She speaks quite well and in full sentences that we find sometimes a mystery to decifer. She has been talking alot about the new baby in mummy's tummy and she takes out her 'doctors' kit to check me. She is still not eating alot of different foods and we limit her dairy and soy. She is still on acid reflux medication but seems to be digesting things better in the last few weeks. She only weighs 20lbs, and is a funny little elf. We are a bit concerned about how she will deal with the new baby in her life and sharing her mother. We know she will just learn to cope but it is going to be tough at first. She is definitely the center of our world.
Here are some pictures of our house and Maetia. The house pictures are a little wonky because they had to be pasted together. With slanted walls and tiny rooms, there isn't alot of room for stepping back to get the whole picture, but it gives you an idea.
We will keep you posted on the labour and hope to have some exciting news in the next week or so.

Our new house

It has taken awhile to get the renovations done but we are now moved in, settled, mostly unpacked and starting to put up artwork and decorations. We completely redid the bathroom, and tore out all carpet and wallpaper upstairs. Of course we found mold on the walls and after removing the gyprock we realized there was no insulation in the exterior walls. So we did what we could afford and then blew in more cellulose insulation in the attic. It has definitely made a difference. Maetia tells us every day that there is plastic on the windows, Daddy did that she says, "keeps us warm". I wonder when we have a more efficient home if she will remember being so poor we had to seal the windows up and put plastic on them. Oh well, we own our own home and it is a great feeling!! Except when the basement filled with water, but that is another story. We are really happy to be in and look forward to our backyard full of trees and raspberries/blackberries in the spring. We are finding the space a blessing and a curse because there is more to clean and more places to loose things but we also have enough room for Michael to have a studio and for all of our 'things' that have been packed aways since we got married. It is fun to have walls to hang art on and shelves to put our books on. We have so many books and so much pottery!! We are going to post more pictures of the updated version of our house as well as more of Maetia. I did put up one picture of my belly, as requested. I have a larger than basketball size stomach with stretch marks gallore. We are praying that the baby will come soon and be healthy. I am not due for another week and since we are planning a home birth we don't want to rush anything, but lets just say by looking at the size of me, I am ready.